How Obama and Allies Are Suppressing News of Economic Disaster Ahead

On May 7th, it was revealed that the Obama administration spent $8.35 billion on a “demonstration project” designed to postpone the vast majority of Obamacare’s Medicare Advantage cuts until after the election. On July 31st, it was revealed that the Labor Department warned defense contractors against notifying workers of impending layoffs before the election as well, despite the fact that it would require violating the law to do so. On September 21, it was revealed that a report on the Greek bailout will also be postponed until after the U.S. election. On September 13th, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke announced that he will be pursuing a third round of Quantitative Easing (QE3), once again under the auspices of “stimulating” the economy. The over-arching theme here is clear: anything that constitutes an “inconvenient reality” for this president, especially with respect to economics, will be delayed until after the election.

Thus, the president can continue to campaign on the “heartless” cuts a Romney administration will administer to healthcare in general, and seniors’ healthcare in particular, even as those same seniors remain oblivious to the reality that $7.4 billion will be cut from the Medicare Advantage program in 2013. As a result, enrollees will lose an average of $515 in benefits. Americans remain equally oblivious to the reality that family health insurance premiums have gone up by an average $2,730, despite a 2008 promise Obama made to lower premiums by $2500 by the end of his first term.

With respect to layoffs of employees who work in the defense industry, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is quite clear: employers are required to give employees 60 days notice before mass layoffs take place. As a result of the failure of the congressional super-committee to reach a budget deal during the debt ceiling negotiations last August, automatic cuts in defense spending, aka sequestration, are scheduled to kick in on January 2nd. If the WARN Act were enforced, thousands of defense employees would receive their layoff notices on November 3rd–three days before the election.

Enter the Labor Department, which released new “guidelines” on July 30th, in which the rationale for delaying the notices is the idea that “[A]lthough it is currently known that sequestration may occur, it is also known that efforts are being made to avoid sequestration. Thus even the occurrence of sequestration is not necessary foreseeable.” As a result it “would be inappropriate” to notify the affected workers. That would be the same Department of Labor which previously concluded it had “no administrative or enforcement responsibility under [the WARN Act]” and “cannot provide specific advice or guidance with respect to individual situations.” Apparently when there’s an election at stake, anything is possible, even if the rule of law is tossed aside in the process.

With respect to Greece and the rest of the European Union, keeping the welfare state scheme from imploding is a task becoming more daunting with each passing day. The Daily Mailreveals that Greece’s debt is double what that nation had previously claimed, standing at a staggering $25 billion. Greece denied the report, and the resulting disagreement had the desired effect: despite the European Commission wanting a final decision on a Greek bailout to take place at the next EU summit on October 18th and 19th, Germany insists that reliable figures needed to determine the next move won’t be available “until November.” Undoubtedly that means November 7th at the earliest.

Arnold Ahlert is a former NY Post op-ed columnist currently contributing to JewishWorldReview.com, HumanEvents.com and CanadaFreePress.com. He may be reached at atahlert@comcast.net.

pierce

A body named Barack Obama is doing all he can to suppress that information, we are on the edge of the deepest abyss I have ever seen. And you know the worst part is, I am not the smartest guy on the horizon. A vote for Barack Obama will seal the deal, and you can take it to the bank.

amused

no thanks , partisanship will be the cause …..the Eurpeans know it , which makes them smarter than you .

AmazedHuman

….and that will be the ONLY thing you'll be able to take to the bank, too. People, unless they've been really paying attention – and not to the Obama-led media – simply are not aware of how on the brink we are to catastrophe. They'll learn, quick enough, if Obama is re-elected!

WilliamJamesWard

The banks will fail and the doors closed, "out of business"………………William

FJM

Obama has nothing to loose by delaying the negative economic news until after the election. If he loses the election, the bad news will be timed to shift blame to the new administration. If he wins the election, it is his last term and the bad news can't affect him. He will in fact achieve his goal of weakening the US and leaving us vulnerable to economic collapse.

LindaRivera

"The Fed is now financing the government’s entire deficit by printing more money. This currency debasement–as in literally pushing the American dollar itself towards worthlessness/"

This is a horrible, wicked CRIME against the American people. It is DELIBERATELY designed to utterly destroy America and the economy and to create a Depression far worse than the Great Depression. It is unforgivable.

We are ruled by elites who are possessed with an intense hate for America and the American people.

Memo

I think you are partly wrong. It is true that printing money is destroying the dollar however I don't think Bernanke is doing it because he hates America. Think of it this way. I lost my job once and I was faced with a choice either make payments on my house by charging them to my credit card or sell my house. That is similar to the choice of continuing to borrow in order to enjoy the benefits or to cut spending that is faced by the government. The government has an option which I didn't have which is to print money in order to "pay for the house". I doubt the Chinese will lend any more money to the U.S. so the only two options the U.S. government has are either print money or cut spending. The problem with cutting spending is that the people dependent on the benefits that will be cut won't vote for Obama and if he doesn't get in than Bernanke loses his job. Another way to look at this is our economy is like a dying old man where almost any medicine you give has terrible consequences but if you don't give the medicine you also get terrible consequences. If the interest rates go up our debt payments will explode and that will be a disaster. One way to keep the interest rates down is to print money to pay off our debts. We are caught between the frying pan and the fire.

j trail

All of us need to remember this when we go to the poles on 11/06/12. We need to cast our vote for the only choice that we have for economic and personal safety. Vote the Romney/Ryan ticket

susan

I am voteing Romeny/Ryan 2012 we. Cannot have 4 more years where he has no worried to having to run again so he'll destrcountry at a faster pase then ever as he will continue bypassing putting through so much faster and. He won't worry of congress,senate or house he will just do it. this

Jossi

In my view it is decades that western governments are suppressing the true information about the non sustainability of the present system. Of course President Zero is now suppressing the worst information. Even if he isn't reelected (and I hope) the huge problems are persisting, they aren't going to disappear.
The whole world is at a turning point, the comment above from the gentlemen that sees the deepest abyss is very correct. The citizen in any major western country has been duped, and the politician are only throwing more sand in the eyes. The outcome of all this isn't nice to contemplate; what I see, is unfortunately another WW. I perfectly know many people won't agree, this doesn't change neither reality nor the facts, and even less the axis of evil (Russia – China – Islamic countries and all other very socialist leaning countries) which is dead serious about destroying the entire West. What I see further, we in the West are reaping what we sowed, and illusions will meet reality one day.

Zionista

The affirmative action narcissist said on letterman (another sleaze bag) that he's not sure how big the deficit is. hussein obama doesn't know much about anything.

guest

He knows he just doesn't want us to know.

EthanP

And the MSM is asleep at the switch so we can have 4 more years of this failed policy.
Can we IMPEACH the press?

amused

Of course Eurpeans are waiting until after November , they're waiting to see if the IDIOTS we put in Washington are gonna get down to buisness or have another 4 yr pisssing contest .

amused

oh …and BTW , if Republicans and democrats play that same game of partisan brinkmanship which took America's credit rating down a notch , and simply by the ongoing vitriol Moodys is warning of another downgrade BEFORE any debates even start , you can definitely expect another economic disaster .

The SAD TRUTH here is , that Republicans DONT CARE if the ship sinks , as long as THEY are at the helm . And you're calling WHO "traitor " ?

Drakken

You really don't understand simple economics do you? You cannot print more money and spend yourself into prosperity. We are going to crash and it is going to be extremely ugly. When the money runs out, the inner cities will burn because uncle suger isn't paying them anymore.

amused

"Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startups and ongoing companies, then to take an active hand in managing them and, hopefully, five to eight years later, to harvest them at a significant profit.” – endquote

The younger Mitt Romney 1985 . I especially like the use of the words "harvest them…" which means buy them with the money of others exploit their assets , drain them with debt , that someone else will pay for ….that is after your " significant profits " from the looting .
Hey Dummies "the rich dont create jobs " they accumulate wealth , so go ahead and vote for Romney who will kick you in the assss. Morons !

angst

And the government creates jobs ? We all see how many Obama has created – in N.Korea,Finland ,China,Denmark and Uzbekistan .But it's nice of him to give his friends at GM,Google,GE,Merck and Boeing million $ income tax returns and government jobs,while they outsource hundreds of thousands of jobs.

At least Romney can do basic math,something Obama obviously can't do. Go ahead and vote for another $6 trillion in debt ,20 million more legalized illegals ,subprime loans,the education bubble burst and the loss of a few rights.Maybe CA debt will set a new world record with your messiah's help and pass Greece's national debt,they are almost there.

No worries about Romney , Obama already stole and signed away all our tax dollars.There is nothing left.

Radegunda

Have you ever gone to a Staples store? It's a company that Bain Capital "harvested." Staples has stores all over the place (even in other countries), employs lots of people, brings useful goods to customers, returns profit to investors — all because of the eeeeevil Bain.

Meanwhile, Obama pumps our money into the pockets of his big donors and bundlers at boondoggles like Solyndra, which go bankrupt, and the taxpayers lose — our debt climbs, our dollars are debased, more people lose jobs and income.

Yeah, let's go with the Obama approach! Moron.

popseal

What evil confluence of power vaulted Obama into his current place? Destroying the Clinton machine over night and made the idol of pop culture morons, academic snobs, and inner city drones, the Obama mesmerization still works its mind numbing spell . The morons and friends still cheer their 'hero', "Yeah! free cell phones for us!"

Bob H

Instead of writing and complaining lets go to the local network news
And start demonstrating. Their lying an we're not doing a damn thing abut it

chowching259

Role playing is easy for Obama; due to not having any cultural or racial foundation he is without identity. Walking in the shoes of a Muslim, Christian, or Atheist would not be a problem, his 24/7 game play as national leader deserves an Academy Award. But unfortunately he cannot play the part of a businessman it requires a genuine identity, when the curtain comes down Romney will replace him.

WilliamJamesWard

If cleaning up after Katrina is still going on, cleaning up after Obama will be going on into the
year 3012…………………William

http://twitter.com/LindaBlair1 @LindaBlair1

We need to end the liberal monopoly in media and especially on the web. We need more people to contribute and expose left wing lies using websites like http://RightWingWeb.com

atthebeach

Want to know what Obama , Inc is doing to protect their money? Are 'they' buying Gold – or are their mattresses just getting fatter? What?